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Heading out either later this afternoon or tomorrow and picking up a used 55gal that I found on Craigslist. My plan is to start a reef aquarium. How should I start? Do I need lighting right away? Filter? Live Rock?

Sorry for the stupid questions but I'm very new to this. Any information will be helpful.

Start slow.

Decide on lighting setup that you want based on the corals you plan to keep. You could setup the tank with live stand and RO water first and move from that point. Just don't get any fish until after you added some live rock and the tank has cycled. Only way to determine that it has cycled is by testing it. Try adding in all the live rock at once so you only need to cycle once or if this isn't available then add small loads (2 or 3lbs) of live rock every few weeks to reduce that chance of the tank doing another cycle.

make sure you think about the lighting PC's are good but as you get deeper water you have to make sure you have good penatration... and MH are brite and do great job too but run much warmer than pc's and t5's and LED's so proper ventelation is required. like NSX said just cycle the live sand and your water. have you thought of anything for your sump?  i'd suggest just picking up a test kit just like the test strips that test for Nitrate, Nitrite, Ph and Buffering Capacity: Mines made by Mardel. you wanna really keep eye on Nitrate and Nitrite.... Ph Can be helped with Buffering Solutions for saltwater that keeps it at 8.2 ish...the one made by Seachem works great just wish i got the smaller bottle as you don't use much at all.  i'd suggest getting api reef master kit and saltwater master kit once your up and running to check calcium and phosphate and ammonia lvls too along with everything else!!!

thanks everyone, all very helpful information to get me going.

I picked up the tank this afternoon and spent a few hours cleaning it down and placing it in my living room. Now I need to find a source of RO water to fill it and then I can move forward from that.

Do I need lights right away or can I cycle without them ?

good source for RO water is walmart....67 cents a gallon.  also don't quote me but i'm positive you can cycle without lights yes....

Depends on exactly what you are cycling. If it just water live sand and pre cured live rock then you should leave lights on (bout 8+-) hours a day. If uncured rock then cure it seperatly with little light. Make sure you take your time and do as much reading as you can. A beginer reef keeping book is always good. I would definatly have all your equipment ready before you begin to cycle. What are your plans as far as filtration and water movement?

Hey guys if you need a place to get good base rock cheap go to rockquatics.com. It is awsome for the price. Save yourself some money by getting 40% base to start. Also go slowly as the faster you go the harder you'll crash. 

Snowflake Reef:

Hey guys if you need a place to get good base rock cheap go to rockquatics.com. It is awsome for the price. Save yourself some money by getting 40% base to start. Also go slowly as the faster you go the harder you'll crash. 

Thanks for the tips Snowflake Reef, I'll check out the site.

I plan on building the 135g tank from start to end in about 30days, is that slow?

So how is the tank coming along WiseGuy?